Who, Exactly, Was the ‘Odette’ of New Hope’s River House at Odette’s?
River House at Odette’s, New Hope, is among Bucks County’s finest resort properties. Adam Schubak profiled the location — including its unique name — for Yahoo! Live.
In reporting the property’s details Schubak looked into its namesake.
The “Odette” that the hotel has chosen to immortalize is Odette Myrtil, a long-forgotten entertainer with a local connection.
Odette Myrtil, for whom River House at Odette’s in New Hope is named.
Image via IMDb.
Myrtil’s IMDb listing fills in some details: She was born in Paris in 1898. At age 14, she was on the vaudeville circuit in France as a violinist.
In 1915, she came to the U.S. and eventually was cast as a Ziegfeld Girl, performing in Broadway review spectaculars.
She parlayed that experience into a Hollywood film career. In 1940, she appeared in Kitty Foyle, an RKO production that won an Oscar for Ginger Rogers in the title role.
Her later years are blurred. Not much is known about her until she came to New Hope and established a cabaret house called Chez Odette’s.
She eventually died in Doylestown in 1978 at the age of 80.
River House at Odette’s remembers Myrtil through her portrait, hung outside its event space. Restaurant menus also recall the dishes she once served guests.
More on Odette and the site that preserves her Bucks County memory is at Yahoo! Live.
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